Historical novels about Japan were followed by her young adult fiction like The Great Gilly Hopkins (1978) and Bridge to Terabithia. The church wanted some curriculum ideas from Paterson, so she began to write-and never stopped. after four years, and met and married to a Presbyterian minister in 1962. She headed to Japan to teach, returned to the U.S. Paterson attended King University (then King College) in Tennessee and taught for a year at a rural school in Virginia, where she once said many of her students were as irrepressible as Jesse Aarons.Īfter graduate school, Paterson wanted to head to China but, in 1957, the borders were closed. The family was forced to move back to the United States during World War II, eventually ending up in Winchester, Virginia. She was born in 1932 in China, where her parents were missionaries. Paterson’s road to becoming an author took a lot of detours. Before Bridge to Terabithia, Katherine Paterson wanted to be a missionary in China. (Spoilers will follow.)įor more on Bridge to Terabithia, including Paterson’s inspiration and her status as a Living Legend, keep reading. The experience not only deepens their friendship but prepares them for unexpected tragedy to come-one that still surprises readers to this day.

In an effort to avoid the realities of fifth grade in their rural Virginia community, best friends Jesse Aarons and Leslie Burke head for Terabithia, an enchanted world deep in the forest and conjured by Leslie. But for others, author Katherine Paterson’s 1977 novel Bridge to Terabithia is the ultimate escape in escapist fiction. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. There’s a genre of children’s literature in which the young heroes discover-or create-a fantasy world in order to cope with their real-life problems.

Katherine paterson terabithia